The Day Marinette Broke
by qrowin-shitposts
Summary: "Today was the day. A body hit the floor, and the room exploded into a glorious, unmoving silence." Not-even-remotely-serious story about how Marinette finally cracks. Rated T for language and awkward boners. Kind of crack but still somewhat grounded in the original work.
1. Today's the day

**This is my first ML fanfiction. It's mostly comedic but has some fluff. It has a focus on Adrienette and Marichat. Hope you guys enjoy watching Marinette suffer.**

* * *

Today was the day. A body hit the floor, and the room exploded into a glorious, unmoving silence.

The students stared at what they just witnessed. They were statues, continuing to examine the scene before them as if any second it might poof out of reality and their regular daily lives could continue. It did not.

Adrien did not stare, however. His eyes glazed over as the world around him got drowned out by the endless stream of questions he found himself asking. "Was this my fault? Why did this happen? How was it even possible? Why do I have an erection?"

However, of all the students who sat there, completely unmoving, no one moved less than Chloe Bourgeois, who laid on the floor, out cold.

Today was not the day Marinette broke. But it was the day she got just comfortable enough around Adrien.

It was the day Chloe got just handsy enough with Adrien.

It was the day Marinette and Chloe had their most heated debate yet.

It was the day Chloe, in a fit of pure, unadulterated bitch, attempted to slap Marinette.

It was the day Marinette wished she didn't have the instincts of a superhero.

Today was the day Marinette dodged Chloe's slap, and, on reflex, jumped into the air and clocked Chloe in the head with the spinning roundhouse of a Greek goddess, knocking her unconscious in a single blow.

No, Marinette did not break today. Chloe's skull, on the other hand? She was lucky to get away with a fracture.

On this day, whether she liked it or not, all of her classmates learned that you do not fuck with Marinette Dupein Cheng. And, on this day, all of her classmates learned that if you fuck with Adrien Agreste, Dupein will bring due pain.

Marinette, against the protests of all the students desperate to get on her good side, got suspended from school for a week for violence in the classroom (and not having a rich dad).

No, Marinette did not break today. But one week later, she almost did.


	2. Revelations

Adrien woke up that day filled with energy, and that concerned him greatly.

All week while Marinette was gone, he was feeling quiet down. Chloe was exercising her newfound place back at the top of the foodchain. Marinette's suspension had given her back her old arrogance. She picked on all of the other students, made unwanted advances on him, and generally made life not fun. Adrien was looking forward to when Marinette would come back.

But when he went to bed on Sunday, he had a weird dream. A dream he did not quite understand. He didn't know what was happening, what any of it meant, but there is one thing he remembered from that dream: Marinette beat the shit out of him and it was awesome. And he woke up like he just had the best night of sleep of his life.

So yeah, he was confused and concerned, but he didn't have it in him to stress it too much. He was just feeling so high on life. He was excited to sit by Marinette again and have things go back to normal. Well, as normal as you could get while Marinette is universally feared by the students and some of the faculty.

Little was he aware of Marinette's mental state the previous week.

Marinette had quite the suspension. When her parents heard about the her incident, they did not get mad. No, they seemed happy. "Oh, so you got in a fight over Adrien? Oh, well I suppose it makes sense". Marinette wished they were mad and grounded her instead. It's not like she was planning on showing her face outside ever again. But instead all they did was give her that look. Christ, she had to take down all her pictures of Adrien to keep them from barging into her room and sighing happily.

And Marinette does NOT function properly when she can't look at Adrien's face for days on end.

It was a strange feeling, being so stressed. It exacerbated the feelings she took away from her most recent day of school, a strange cocktail of shame and exhilaration. On one hand she felt terrible because she just roundhoused Chloe in the face in front of everyone she knew. But on the other hand, she just roundhoused Chloe in the FACE. That gave her so much confidence and energy that she had to find an outlet for.

It started with her mindless distractions: mastering yoyo tricks she found online, marathoning games and tv shows, that sort of thing. But eventually she found a new outlet. Late one night, after a few too many macaroons, she lay on her bed, staring at the walls around her. She imagined the pictures of Adrien that once livened up her room.

Then, a realization struck her.

She put all of her pictures of Adrien all back on the wall, constantly rearranging their positions and connecting them with red string. She was coming to a realization. Something she should've realized long ago.

Adrien has been working out.

If you put together the pictures in chronological order, Adrien can be seen slowly increasing in muscle mass. It's very slight but it's noticeable if you look closely.

So Marinette spent another few hours fantasizing about Adrien doing curls with a dumbbell on his way to a photoshoot, but then she realized: Adrien probably has an awesome body.

So she, in what Tiki pointed out was a really weird thing to do (not that Marinette listened), created an entire fashion line in the remaining week, entirely centered around the theme of looking really good on Adrien and with the secret goal of ever so slightly revealing as many square inches of his body as humanly possible.

Her parents woke up to her holding up several different colors of fabric up to a picture she drew of Adrien in a suspiciously low-cut v-neck. They decided not to ask any questions.

Once again, I feel I should mention, Marinette wasn't in her best mind. She would later look upon this week in extreme embarrassment and regret. Not because she made the designs, no, but because she sent them to Adrien's dad. Someone saw that she drew 23 pictures of Adrien in "warm weather outfits" and would never unsee it.

She went to school the next day too embarrassed to even notice everyone simultaneously afraid of and silently worshipping her. She was too busy noticing Adrien glancing back at her all throughout class. In her mind, she was convinced he saw the drawings and that he was slently judging her.

She did not expect him to ask her to hang out when class ended. No, she didn't see that coming at all.

But that week's surprises were definitely not over. Oh, no, not by a longshot.

4 days from that day, Marinette would break.


	3. A third player enters the scene

Gabriel Agreste stepped out onto his balcony and stared dramatically into the setting sun.

The night prior, he recieved a portfolio from an aspiring young designer. The name, "Marinette Dupein-Cheng", was somewhat familiar. She was Adrien's age, and she had show promise before. Was she ready for the big leagues? He wasn't convinced, but he was curious enough to take the time out of his schedule to take a look at what she sent in.

Suffice to say what he saw shocked him.

The clothes were made precisely to Adrien's proportions, and they seemed specifically designed to show off all of his best qualities. This girl had carefully studied everything that was there to know about Adrien's body.

He thought back to what he knew of her. His son had talked about her fairly often. From what he recalled she was described as talented and of good moral fiber, but Gabriel never expected something like this out of her. He wasn't sure how to act.

It was clear that this girl waned Adrien bad. It was clear she would do anything to take him. He squinted at the setting sun, and made a declaration he would never stray from. For his son's sake, he must make sure one thing happens.

"I swear, on this day, Marinette Dupein-Cheng will marry my son".

Finally, a girl comes along who truly appreciates how perfect his son was. This was not something to be taken lightly.

He would stop at nothing until the genius behind these designs was his daughter.

"Nathalie, cancel all of Adrien's appointments. Something just came up".


	4. A storm brews

Adrien knew something was off when the first thing his dad did in the morning was look him in the eyes and say hello.

Yes, today was going to be quite strange.

His father told him he had the day off and that he should do something with a friend. "Perhaps you can invite that Marinette and play Ultimate Mecha Strike III or some such." The words came out of his mouth like a bar of year old soap being forced through a cheese-grater.

It was then that Adrien had sudden flashbacks to his dream about Marinette jumping into light-fierce on his ass. He had to rush out the door without saying anything to hide his emerging boner.

Boy class that day was awkward. He couldn't help but glance back at Marinette periodically.

 _Her biceps had to have gotten bigger since they met, right? Or is it just me? Oh shit I've been looking for more than one second. Oh shit she noticed. Fuck fuck abort abort-_

So yeah, it went like that for a while. It wasn't until after class that he was able to finally talk to her face to face and try to clear things up. The blank, nervous look she had certainly didn't help, but she often looked like that. When talking to him, at least. It didn't help his confidence, but he had to try and improve things with her.

"Hey Marinette... uh, I'm free today, so I was wondering if you'd like to come over to my place today. You know, we could play some games, or, uh... hey are you okay?"

Marinette was currently in a plank position, falling to the ground. She barely managed to snap back into reality in time to catch herself with her arm and try to morph into the closest thing to a casual pose she could muster.

She just stopped her downward momentum with one arm. Her arms must be really strong. She could probably take out one of his teeth if she wanted to.

Marinette managed to stutter out a response about having something to do that day with Alya. Figures, she always seemed hesitant to spend time with him. But Alya, having heard that, rolled her eyes and told Marinette that she had a conflict and that Marinette was free. It was only then that Martinette awkwardly agreed to come with him.

It was obvious she didn't have anything with Alya tht day. She didn't want to spend time with him. Adrien was determined she would leave his house today thinking otherwise. And he was sure he'd be able to show her the time of her life.

That is, of course, until Gabriel motherfucking Agreste got involved.

4 days from today, Marinette will break.


	5. The bitter taste of defeat

Things started off promising enough, the fact that Marinette was hyperventilating aside. They walked into the mansion, made an awkward hello to Nathalie, and were about too head upstairs to play some...

CRAP

Adrien still had his room filled with Ladybug-themed... everything. Needless to say he needed to get up there, STAT. He made awkward physical contact with Marinette which froze her in place for a minute (he learned this trick about a month ago. He didn't want to have to but it was a sacrifice that needed to be made).

However, when he got up there, his dad was standing there, and all of his ladybug paraphernalia was gone. Gabriel simply nodded at him and backed up silently behind some curtains, his expensive shoes still sticking out from under them.

Adrien had seen a lot, but that was a new one.

Marinette finally walked in and didn't seem to notice his dad, so he decided not to say anything. They played UMS3 for a while, pretty much all losses for Adrien, but he didn't mind. If he thought about it, she kind of was beating him up, in a way. Not that he wanted her to suplex him into next Sunday, he just probably wouldn't mind it is all. She clearly would get the upper hand on him in a fight. She could read him like Dr. Seuss and not to mention those BICEPS-oh god she's staring she noticed oh god-

She saw him staring and apparently started feeling guilty for winning so much. He always somehow managed to do this, didn't he? Make her feel bad? He needed to stop this; he decided he would stop it. But his dad had other plans.

His dad emerged from the curtain and opened his mouth, but it seemed he forgot what he was going to say. Marinette noticed his emergence and couldn't find any words to say either. At least it wasn't Adrien making things awkward anymore.

"Hello, Marinette. I see you have taken in interest in my son."

The phrasing of the sentence didn't make Marinette any more comfortable.

"However, I'm afraid I might need to pull you away for a second. As you know, you recently sent in some -"

He didn't even finish his sentence before she was gone. Her legs must've been strong. Like, rib-breaking strong. Adrien began fantasizing for a bit about her stepping on his face for a second, and the next thing he knew he was alone in the room. He realized his dad probably screwed up his chance of friendship with her, so he just played against some level 9 computers for a while, dejected and weirdly erect.

Eventually, he needed some air. He walked outside and looked up into the sky, trying to think of Marinette crushing his head between her thighs to cheer himself up. He wasn't quite sure why it cheered him up, but it helped and that's what mattered.

When Marinete walked outside, Adrien offered to walk her home. She looked down at the ground and agreed awkwardly. She clearly wanted to say something, but for some reason couldn't.

Halfway to her house, it began raining. He didn't have an umbrella to give her this time.

When Adrien got home, he muffled his face with his pillow and screamed for a solid 30 seconds straight. When he finally ran out of energy, he flipped through his phone trying to think of what to do. Should he call Marinette and apologize? No, that would be too awkward. But that's when he noticed one of his other contacts:

Alya.


	6. Confessions

"Alya? Do you have a second? I need to talk to someone".

Alya stopped uploading memes to the ladyblog when she heard Adrien's distressed tone. This was important.

"Okay, A, what's up?" She wasn't sure if she was excited or dreading that it might be about Marinette.

"It's about Marinette"

Okay she's definitely excited about. Her best friend was finally making some progress. Hopefully. Oh god who was she kidding Marinette fucked up big time this time didn't she? What did she do?

"Okay, Adrien, talk to me. I promise I'll listen to the end". She was not ready for what he was about to say. Not by a long shot.

"So, me and Marinette just hung out for a bit today, but, well, you see, things didn't go... I should probably explain. You see, when Marinette and I first met, oh, who am I kidding, you were there. We didn't get off on the right foot, you know? And I've really tried to make it up to her, I really did, but it never seemed to work. I mean, she's always so nice to me, she is to everyone, but she's always seemed like she's, I dunno, putting up with me? Like she can't be comfortable around me? And she really is amazing. I look up to her a lot. They way she stands up to Chloe, how talented she is, the way she got everyone to like her just by being who she is instead of by being famous... She was my idol in a lot of ways. I really wanted to get close to her, but... let's just say I've realized it's a lost cause. I know she would deny not liking me if I asked her, she's too nice, but, well, I dunno, I just needed to tell let someone know that she doesn't need to worry anymore. I'll leave her alo-"

Alya couldn't hold it in anymore. She just laughed. She laughed for a solid 10 minutes. She couldn't get a single word out. It was just too amazing. By the time she could form coherent speech, Adrien had already turned off his phone and went to bed.

On his way to school the next day, he looked at his phone out of habit and saw that Alya sent him a text.

"You know, if you like her so much, you should just ask her out! Maybe if you make your feelings clear she'll feel more comfortable around her. Who knows, maybe she's just nervous around you cause she likes you too! :P"

WOAH. WOAH. WOAH. Not what was happening. Adrien wanted his spleen ruptured by Marinette's elbow for purely platonic reasons.

Adrien wasn't able finish his denial before he got interrupted loud, obnoxious cackling from around the corner

"I AM THE DEVIL'S ADVOCATE! PREPARE TO HAVE THOSE EARRINGS SUED RIGHT OFF YOU!"

Adrien knew what to do. Frantic denial would have to wait.

"Plagg, claws out!'


	7. Marinette has a run-in with the law

Marinette was having a week. She thought her life was finally taking a turn for the better when she got to play games with the love of her life, but of course she never holds back when playing and she made him feel bad about himself. Great.

But then things got weird. Her hopefully(?) to be father-in law pulled her away from Adrien to have a private conversation. Well, kind of. He brought her down to his private office, sat her down on one side of a desk and sat on the other. He must've stared into her eyes for a solid ten minutes before saying, in a complete monotone: "On a scale of one to ten, how would you rate the sexiness of Adrien's body".

Countless emotions flooded over her all at once. Nervousness, excitement, intrigue, imminent danger, and a bit of violation, among others she didn't have words for. She sat there, losing herself in the surreal situation she found herself in. She thought of what she should do: should she run? Should she answer? What number should she say? How would he react?

Suddenly, something otherworldly filled her body, and without thinking she stared him in the eyes and said, with complete seriousness, "eleven".

With this, Mr. Agreset got up and left the room, leaving Marinette all alone for about an hour to contemplate what the hell just happened. She occasionally heard people talking outside the room, some of them yelling, but she couldn't make out what any of them were saying. Eventually, Gabriel reentered the room and handed her a key-card.

"This is the master key to this mansion. It also works on Adrien's room, in case you were wondering It's completely silent, so he won't even hear you enter his room, even if he was asleep."

With that, he led her outside, where Adrien was waiting to walk her home in the rain. Neither of them said anything. Honestly, she wasn't sure what to say. When she got home, she flopped down in her bed and instantly fell asleep, exhausted by the mental triathlon that was dealing with the fact Gabriel Agreste did literally any of the things he did that night.

When she went to school that day, she was stopped almost immediately by some nutcase civil-lawyer-turned-akuma who somehow managed to steal her earrings with the power of lobbying or some bullcrap like that. He was doing this to everyone and their dog, so he probably didn't know that they were a miraculous, so she wasn't screwed yet.

Luckily, it was around this time Cat Noir showed up.

"Well well well, look who it is. It's my pleasure to meet you again, Princess. Having a run-in with the law? Well lucky for you, you're guaranteed an attorney to represent you, and here I am, you're attorney at claw".

Oh for fuck's sake.

"Wow, thanks for coming to save me Cat. That Akuma just sued my earrings off of me. My... uh... grandpa gave them to me! They're very important, so I need to get them back! He put all of the stolen stuff into his suitcase, so if you can get that back everyone can get their stuff back!"

And, you know, she could save Paris. That too.

Cat was more than excited to pick a fight, it seemed. "Judge, the defense calls the Devil's Advocate to the stand!"

"Cat I'm pretty sure he's a civil attorney, not a prosecutor"

Cat looked a bit dejected at the correction, which made her laugh a bit. Teasing him was always fun.

The poor guy lasted about 12 seconds. Apparently the Devil's Advocate new how to swing around a suitcase pretty well. For some reason, seeing Cat Noir getting the shit beat out of himwas kind of fun in a totally-not-creepy way.

A blow to the head wasn't enough to stop Cat from getting back up again, but he definitely needed help. Marinette got the yo-yo out of her backpack and decided to help. She may not be Ladybug right now, but she could still try to offer some distraction.

And by distraction she meant lassoing his leg, pulling him off his balance, and dropkicking him into the next century. Cat ran to the suitcase to break it open, and all the things the akuma stole flew all over when he accidentally made it explode. The akuma had gotten up now, and he was going over to attack Marinette. She managed to parry a few attacks and land a good kick in the balls before she ran to grab her earrings. Without his suitcase he was a lot weaker: Cat could take it from there.

She ran by Cat on her way to here earrings: he murmured something to the effect of "that lucky bastard" but she wasn't sure she heard correctly.

"Okay Cat, I'll go evacuate the area, you go take him on."

"With pleasure, princess. Don't worry. From here, you can leave the fighting to the-

"Yeah yeah, Sue-per heroes, I get it".

Man, it really was fun.


	8. A fatal mistake

Hyperventilation. Was that the word Cat was looking for? It definitely described the involuntary, heavy breathing he was experiencing, but it didn't exactly get to the core of the issue. No, what was causing him trouble was the stress caused by trying to hide the biggest boner of his life while in skin-tight leather throughout an entire akuma-battle. They managed to win, but he was in desperate need of some ice and fresh sock.

Saying Marinette's heroics left him hot and bothered was an understatement, which led him to the following conclusion: Alya was right.

"FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUU-"

"Cat? Is everything all right?"

And now Ladybug noticed his distress. Wonderful. Of all the people he had to face, it had to be her. He felt like he betrayed her. He promised her she was the only one for him, but here he is fawning over this other girl

"Is there something you want to talk about, Cat?"

"Uh, yeah, there is. Can I ask you something?"

"Of course, you can tell me anything."

"Would it okay if, uh, well, I'll just get to the point. I think I'm falling for another girl. And now I don't know about my feelings for you, or how I should-"

It was then that Ladybug threw both her hands up in the air and let out the most triumphant yell Cat had ever earned. After an awkward silence, she sat back down and put her hand on his shoulder.

"I'm glad you've moved on, Cat."

"But-"

"Just go for it."

"Ladybug-"

"Shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh... no words. Just let it happen."

She seemed a little to pleased with what was going on, but Cat was actually glad. It felt much better than getting trapped in a love triangle. It's like they say, if you fall in love with two girls, go for the second one.

But there was a snag. If there was one thing that Adrien knew, it's that Marinette didn't really like him that much. But he was in love with her, and something had to be done. That's when he got an idea:

Marinette can say no to Adrien, but what girl could ever reject the advances of Cat Noir, crime fighter extraordinaire?

Adrien made sure Plagg got some cheese, and then he went to bed to prepare for the beginning of his new love story.

When Marinette woke up the next morning, there was something in the air. A lingering taste that she couldn't quite put her finger on. She would soon learn that that taste was the taste of regret.

2 days from today, Marinette will break.


	9. Love is in the air

Marinette was on edge ever since that morning. She could tell something was off. Was there going to be an Akuma attack? Was Chloe going to try to pull something sneaky on Adrien? Was Mr. Agreste going to show up again and make things complicated? Would-

"Why hello, there, princess."

Of all things to see when she got out of her house, it had to be Cat Noir, didn't it? Not that she hated him or anything, but there was something unusual about the way he was leering at her. And that he was transformed without any real threat. And the fact that he was doing that weird wiggly-thing with his eyebrows.

"Need you any assistance, fair maiden? Do you need me to carry your bag? Need me to carry you? I may be fast and leap through the air, but I promise you won't fall. I can't promises you won't fall me, though".

OH FOR THE LOVE OF ADRIEN'S KILLER BOD THIS WAS NOT HAPPENING.

"What's wrong m'lady? Cat got your tongue?"

NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE NOPE

"Don't worry, I don't bite."

This was not happening. SHE was not the girl Cat was talking about. She did not just try to get Cat together wit herself. No. Incorrect.

She had to do something about this.

"Oh, sorry, Cat, but I kind of like walking to school. Thanks for the offer though."

"Okay, I'll walk with you then."

"Wouldn't people start talking, though? I mean, aren't you sworn to Ladybug or something?"

"Oh don't worry, I'm all yours."

He got down on one knee and kissed her. Oh god she was blushing a bit. Oh god she was running away down the street hyperventilating.

This was not happening.

When she got to school, she expected to be safe. She was wrong. All anyone could talk about was the latest post on the Ladyblog. It was about the interview Alya just had with Ladybug on her way back from fighting crime. As it turned out, Ladybug has recently announced that Cat Noir has moved on from her and that he found a new girl to pursue. And all anyone wanted to do was guess who it was.

The general consensus was that there was about a 20% chance it was Marinette, since everyone seemed to agree Cat was the type of guy who likes girls who could kick his ass.

Marinette managed to duck and roll her way through Paris and avoid Cat on her way home. She even managed to avoid him on the way to school the next day by turning into Ladybug. But it was that day, after school, when everything turned upside-down.

Tomorrow, Marinette will break.


	10. Marinette Breaks

Marinette's parents were away for their anniversary today. Marinette was home alone today. Marinette needed backup. Luckily, Alya was just a phone call away and seemed more than happy to keep her company and help run the bakery.

The day had been going pretty good. They helped a few people buy some cakes, spent an hour trying to get past this one level of angry birds, and they did about 5 minutes of homework before deciding they'd rather be doing literally anything else. Things seemed perfect. For a second, Marinette forgot that anything was wrong in her world.

Her peace was short-lived.

"Hello, I'd like to place an order".

"Yes, of course, what would you like?"

"Are you on the menu?"

Marinette turned around to see none other than Cat Noir standing on the other side of the desk. Her mind raced. She wasn't sure what to do. Should she act innocent? Come up with a sassy retort? Punch him in the face? The last two seemed the most fun, especially that third and final one, but she decided to keep up appearances and stick with the lesser transgression.

"Sorry, but I'm afraid we've run out of fucks to give. You'll need to come back later."

"Oh, so I should come back tomorrow? Marinette, do you yearn for my presence so? Do I appear in your dreams?"

"Oh, yes, you do, but you never seem to make it out of those dreams with all your limbs attached, it's strange."

"Why, it must be because you know how I would gladly give my life to keep you happy."

"And yet you can't do something as simple as leaving me alone?"

"A life without you is a fate worse than death."

"Oh, so you'd go against a lady's wishes for your own satisfaction? My, my. And here I thought you fancied yourself a gentleman."

"I fancy myself fancied by you."

"Well, good luck with tha-"

Aaaaaaaaand Cat was kissing her. She was, somehow, currently leaning over the counter (which she was not last time she checked), and Cat was planting his lips on hers. It took a second to register; She wasn't used to getting kissed, so she didn't recognize it immediately. When she finally figured out what he was doing, she jumped back and made a sound somewhere between the cry of a dying lemur and the noise you make while gurgling mouthwash. Cat stood there awkwardly for a bit before slowly backing out, his mouth making various motions as he tried to come up with something witty to say. When he couldn't think of anything, he just smiled smugly and flippantly saluted her before dashing out the door, hyperventilating.

Marinette turned around to see Alya, her phone out, recording the entire scene. Before Marinette could open her mouth, Alya was already out the door.

"You'll never take me alive!"

Marinette wanted to feel betrayed, but she honestly she was too shocked by what just happened. After regaining her composure, she tried willing Alya's phone into her pocket. It had worked before, but alas, nothing.

The video apparently made it onto the ladyblog by the next morning, because everyone was staring and whispering to each other when she walked in the room. Everyone except Alya, that is. She went straight up to Marinette with that shit-eating grin etched onto her face.

"I bet Adrien's getting pretty jealous, don't you think?"

Marinette said nothing. She simply sat down in her seat. She just wanted this to be over. She wasn't exactly sure how it'd end, but she figured she'd spend as little time paying attention to it as possible until it sorted itself out.

Adrien had different plans.

"Hey, Marinette, I saw what Alya posted on the ladyblog. I saw that thing that happened between you and Cat Noir."

Marinette's head snapped up to look at Adrien. Adrien was talking to her. She didn't realize until now how much she needed Adrien to talk to her. She needed something to wash all that Cat Noir out of her system. Oh god, he was blushing. Oh god, was Alya right? Was he about to confess? Was he-

"I just really wanted you to know that I think you and Cat Noir make a great couple."

And with that, Marinette broke.

Her face went blank. She was nothing. She sat there, staring into the abyss for a solid 10 minutes. Then, part way through class, she got up without a word and walked out of the room. She walked out of the school. But try as she might've, she couldn't walk out of reality.

On her way to try to get anywhere besides where she was, she ran into Cat. She responded to his presence by punching him in the face and then continuing on as if he didn't exist. He existed regardless.

She walked a few more paces before losing all her remaining will, falling face-first onto the concrete sidewalk. She began gently sobbing as Cat Noir made strange groaning noises in the background.

The next thing she remembered, she was in Alya's house, watching project runway reruns with a vat of ice cream in her lap, and three days had passed.

She didn't know what this emotion filling her chest was. She didn't know where the pieces went when she broke, or if she could ever be put back together. All she knew is that she was no longer the Marinette Dupein Chang that woke up the morning of that fateful day, and that she would never be able to return to the perfect life she once knew.

Gabriel Agreste glared at the full moon dramatically. The glass of scotch in his hand shattered under the pressure of his grip. Trembling, he grasped the edge of the balcony and attempted to bring words to the primordial passion he felt ever since he saw that video.

"I swear upon my dignity as a father... I will destroy Cat Noir".


End file.
